LI College Hospital to become condos?

Few things are as symbolic of neighborhood change as the local safety net hospital.

For a long time it served the poor. Then, the poor left. Then, the hospital failed to attract huge numbers of the middle class, which is necessary because the middle class tend utilize hospitals less. Now, it may be closed. Those interested in helping the site become condos are licking their chops:

I would also vote for Maimonedes. Depending on how you get there, you may not have a choice. Ambulances will take you to the closest available HHC entity. Kings County has a few horror stories - as does Coney Island, Brookdale

The New York state health commissioner said Monday that Long Island College Hospital would not be eligible for federal funding from the state's Medicaid waiver request.Testifying at a joint legislative budget hearing, Dr. Nirav Shah said that only hospitals with a plan to reduce inpatient admissions 25% would be eligible for federal funds."That kind of transformation can occur with Interfaith," a central Brooklyn hospital that is battling bankruptcy. "LICH is a different story," he said.His remarks are in line with recent efforts by the Cuomo administration to move the conversation away from the notion of preserving hospitals and towards downsizing."I don't want to 'rescue'" hospitals, Mr. Cuomo told Crain's editorial staff last week. Though he has lobbied vocally for a decision on the Medicaid waiver request, which would provide a $10 billion cash infusion to the state, the funds would cover upfront costs to downsize some of Brooklyn's hospitals--not preserve them in their current state."Our opening premise is, you have an excess hospital capacity," he told Crain's. "You have beds that you don't need. You have to close beds ... and plan a county-wide, borough-wide health care system that makes sense."On Friday, State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery became the first local elected official to publicly support a pared-down version of LICH. In a letter to SUNY Board of Trustees Chair H. Carl McCall, she said "the financial Status of LICH as a fully staffed and operated traditional hospital does not seem tenable."It is unclear whether the Medicaid statement marks a change for LICH's future, since a sale by SUNY appears imminent, and it is unclear that a new operator would have been eligible for waiver funds. Monday afternoon marked the deadline for interested parties to submit revised proposals for the hospital.A spokesman for SUNY said that the university is reviewing proposals to make sure they comply "with the minimum mandatory requirements," and that SUNY "will provide summaries as soon as we are able."

Government to public: We did everything we could to try to make someone operate a full service hospital, but it just isn't possible. As a result, we are going to do what everyone in this industry has known is necessary the entire charade, we are going to close the hospital, and replace it with a type of healthcare facility that doesn't have a money losing ER and beds.

Needless to say, this "lack of obligation" may have increased the price that they were willing to pay.

Through SUNY, NYS ultimately ended up owning and selling LICH. In many ways, this made more sense than the city ending up owning it, because state agencies (NYS DOH) paid the hospital bailout funds for years.

As stated above, developers were willing to continue to operate a hospital if the city gave it permission to build residential towers. The city said "No, we won't/can't do that".

Now, the state has effectively maximized the amount will get for the "low rise" property by telling DeBlasio that they are not going to sacrifice their interests (money) for his interests (affordable housing).

The deal to sell Long Island College Hospital is in jeopardy as NYU Langone Medical Center announced it is pulling out of its agreement to run the medical section. LICH has long been troubled by financial problems and Brooklyn residents have fought to keep healthcare at the sight, but the latest development may mean no services are offered at all.

NYU announced the move after a judge expanded a lawsuit brought by a nurses union to include the development company that offered to buy the LICH campus property from SUNY for $244 million. “We fear this would ultimately force NYU Langone to remove the highly qualified nursing staff we had hired and constrain our ability to choose nurses who meet our standards,” NYU said in a statement.

The nurses’ lawsuit demands that NYU honor a commitment to rehire staff at a walk-in emergency department at LICH. It is unclear what might happen next in the LICH saga as SUNY already disqualified the top two bidders for LICH for promising services they couldn't deliver."

Wow. I hope (probably against hope) that NYU can be persuaded to come back or will perhaps open a medical facility unconnected to LICH. It would have been huge to have an NYU medical outpost in Brooklyn, even if it is just a stand-alone emergency room.

Frankly, I don't blame NYU for pulling out of the deal if they could not hire the people they wanted to hire. I hope those 7 former LICH nurses, and the other nurses NYU had originally hired, give NYSNA hell for killing their new jobs.